What instructional leadership actually looks like

"Instructional leadership" gets used to mean everything and nothing. In the schools where it works, it is concrete and routine.

It is weekly, not termly

Leaders visit lessons briefly and often — not to judge, but to build a shared picture of what teaching looks like across the school this term.

It is about a small number of things

Pick two or three teaching priorities for the year. Every observation, every coaching conversation, every department meeting comes back to them. Breadth kills focus.

It is coaching, not fixing

The conversation after a visit is a question, not a verdict: "What were you hoping students would take away? What told you whether they did?"